


Headed to the guillotine

by Deeambles



Series: Pool noodles and other assorted floaties [10]
Category: Naruto
Genre: :), Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Gen, Hashiramas forest of trees that may or may not be out to get you
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-07
Updated: 2020-05-07
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:07:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24049441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deeambles/pseuds/Deeambles
Summary: His sensei is probably shaking her head, and refilling her drink for all the times she told him if he strayed from the main road he’d be lost and never seen again.Zabuza had sneered then, shook off the warning for what it was worth because forests no how large aren’t sentient.Turns out he was wrong, lucky him.
Relationships: Momochi Zabuza/Uchiha Shisui
Series: Pool noodles and other assorted floaties [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1462624
Comments: 22
Kudos: 96





	Headed to the guillotine

**Author's Note:**

> For naruto rare pair event on tumblr. Day 4: soulmates

“Zabuza-san?” 

“What.”

“I think we’re lost.” Haku says calmly. 

Zabuza deftly ignores him, and continues his trek through the dense undergrowth. They are admittedly too close to Konoha for his liking, and it only takes one broken branch to alert some patrolling squad. 

Zabuza has had way too long of a bounty hunt across the mainland to deal with that, and even if Haku says he’s not tired, the kid clearly is. 

Sometimes Zabuza forgets Hakus only just making double digits. Sometimes it’s hard to believe someone who can shoot ice without blinking and continues to follow Zabuza on stupid missions for money is still a kid. 

He banishes that thought though and makes a show of turning in a different direction— hopefully out— before he gets truly angry. 

Angry is distracted, and distracted is dead. Dead is leaving Haku to a village that Zabuza has only heard war stories about, not to mention all the clans his old sensei used to drill into his head. 

Uchiha, Senju, Inuzuka, Akimichi, and a shit ton of others. 

Senju, at least he doesn’t have to worry about, with the only known one gone to grief. He is still however, cursing her predecessor and the absolutely stupid forest he created to surround Konoha for miles on end. 

His sensei is probably shaking her head, and refilling her drink for all the times she told him if he strayed from the main road he’d be lost and never seen again. 

Zabuza had sneered then, shook off the warning for what it was worth because forests no how large aren’t sentient. 

Turns out he was wrong, lucky him. 

Breaking him out of his thoughts, Haku grabs his elbow, and stops dead. Zabuza turns, expecting a squad to bust out and detain them for trespassing or something else insane like that, but instead there’s silence. 

The birds chirping overhead slowly die out and Zabuza shifts towards Haku if only to try and get a better view of what might have alerted him. 

A breeze passes through the underbrush, entirely suspicious, and completely expected when some Konoha shinobi bursts out of the woods and nearly trips over both Haku and himself. 

The only reason Zabuza doesn’t cleave him in half is because it looks like somebody beat him to it. 

The other man trips, tumbles on uneven ground just as Zabuza turns his sword aside to catch the flailing shinobi as they collide. 

He grunts, but the other shinobi’s smaller frame isn’t enough to topple him and Haku takes the opportunity to press a short sword to the shinobi’s throat. Zabuza caught him, having him trapped in his arms, but Haku would never take that for granted. 

Zabuza thinks the kid would do better with senbon honestly. 

The shinobi freezes where he’s bleeding out on Zabuza's chest and slowly turns his head up.

Dark curly hair and a single dark eye with a heavy set of eyelashes blinks confusedly up at him before glancing down at the arms effectively holding him up and preventing him from running like a mad man through the woods. 

The other eye is shut tight and surrounded by blood. 

“Hey,” Zabuza starts roughly when it’s clear the other shinobi is clearly only operating off pain and desperation. He’s missing an eye. 

“Hi?” The shinobi parrots, and then seemingly remembers whatever it was that he was running from because he immediately begins struggling, “let me go!” He cries, “they’ll get you too!” 

Zabuza grunts, bearing his teeth as the shinobi tries to elbow him in the gut before snarling out, “Wait, you menace—“ 

This isn’t how contact with enemy shinobi usually goes. 

“There’s people after me!” And this time the shinobi manages to strike a pressure point in Zabuza's arm and break out the hold. Cursing, Zabuza glances a blow to the shinobi head, hand skimming across the injured eye and probably reminding the other man just how badly he’s hurt. 

Zabuza gets a glimpse of a red and white fan scribed to the shinobis sleeve and silently curses his luck. 

On one side, If the clan comes for their kin he’s fucked. 

On the other, a native might be able to get him out of this forest. 

Haku is the one to break the struggle, “they’re dead.” He says flatly. 

It jolts Zabuza and the Uchiha back to their surroundings, and they both freeze to look at the pre-teen standing serenely in a break between the trees. 

He’s surrounded by 5 dead ninja, all wearing blank masks. 

“They were waiting in the trees, probably for you two to fight.” 

The Uchiha scans over the body with a particularly nasty look on his face. If Zabuza had to describe it he would say it’d land somewhere between immense satisfaction and a sort of cruel confusion. 

His sensei would just say that the kid looks like he’s about to faint, stuck between relief and pain as he is. Zabuza isn’t poetic but he’s sure the Uchiha isn’t even aware he’s projecting so much emotion on his face. 

“Hey,” Zabuza says breaking the silence, “you’re bleeding.” 

Zabuza isn’t sure why he cares all of a sudden, for a fleeing Uchiha of all bloody clans. 

He’s sure It might even be false feelings, just a determination to leave the woods. 

“Yes,” the shinobi murmurs then turns his attention to Haku, “Thank you.” 

Haku does his stone faced equivalent of a flail at the sincerity that falls off this Uchiha like a well loved cloak. It would be concerning if Zabuza wasn't sure that this shinobi would fall over if he had a little less motivation. I.e. Running for his life. 

As if to prove him right, (and really what gods has Zabuza pissed off for this), the Uchihas lone eye rolls back into his head as he falls to the ground. 

Zabuza grunts for mostly show as he catches him, figuring that dirt in a missing eye would be bad medical care before slowly lowering him to the ground. The Uchiha is clearly underfed, Zabuza's sword weighs more than him by leagues.

“Zabuza?” 

“He’s our way out.” 

Haku is silent, unwilling to admit defeat, Kiri born and raised that way. 

“He’s unconscious.” He points out dryly

“Yeah,” Zabuza says sarcastically and then thinks back to the tales of the forest that surrounds Konoha, “but maybe this damn forest will open up to us if we help one of its own.” 

Haku looks at him funny, and then to the forest around them, as birds start calling in the distance again. 

Zabuza pulls out a med kit and wraps the wound as best he knows how. The other shinobi just needs to not bleed out, other details can be tackled by his family or Konoha’s superior medics. 

As he lifts the unconscious shinobi into his arms he carefully considers how the shinobi was running from the supposed direction of Konoha. 

“Seal 'em and bring them with.” Zabuza says, gesturing to the dead shinobi, “Maybe we’ll get a good bounty for em.” 

Haku isn’t fooled but does as he asks. 

Zabuza will take a half circle around the route that the Uchiha came and hopefully avoid any more masked fuckers and find another Uchiha as soon as possible. 

It’ll work out. 

Probably. 

“Come on, Haku, we got Konoha to find.” He says instead, 

_And a forest to escape._

**Author's Note:**

> The premise was “You only find your soulmate when they're in great peril.” Notice this would be different for everyone (especially between shinobi and civilians) so finding your soulmate is basically akin to chance. In this case Zabuza would have been lost to the woods and Shisui would have died aka canon. Luckily I am a merciful author and that didn’t happen :).... but it could’ve >:)


End file.
